Sept. 12: Security chiefs said to warn ministers Gaza City takeover will ‘inevitably’ kill hostages

Sharaa says Syria in talks with Israel on security deal

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's President Ahmad al-Sharaa receives the final version of the provisional electoral system for the people's assembly, in Damascus, Syria, July 27, 2025. (SANA via AP)

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa says his country is negotiating with Israel to reach a security agreement that would see Israel leave areas it occupied after the December overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

As Islamist-led forces toppled Assad on December 8, Israel deployed troops to the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights, which has separated Israeli and Syrian forces since an armistice that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel has also launched hundreds of airstrikes on targets in Syria and carried out incursions deeper into the south. Syria’s new authorities have not responded to the attacks.

“We are now in a state of negotiations and dialogue on the issue of a security agreement,” Sharaa says in an interview with state television channel Alekhbariah.

He says that Israel believed that Syria had “quit” the 1974 disengagement agreement after Assad’s fall, “even though Syria, from the first moment, expressed its commitment” to the accord.

“Now, negotiations are underway on a security agreement to return Israel to where it was before December 8,” Sharaa says.

Israel and Syria have no diplomatic relations, with the two countries technically at war since 1948.

In the interview, Sharaa reveals that Syrian forces entered secret negotiations with key Assad ally Russia during the offensive that eventually toppled the longtime ruler.

“When we reached Hama in the battle of liberation, there were negotiations between us and Russia,” Sharaa says.

When forces arrived in Homs further south, Russia “stayed away from the battle… as part of an agreement reached between us,” he says.

Qatar emir hosts Netanyahu-ally Orban, thanks Hungary for support following Israeli strike

In a noteworthy meeting earlier today, Qatar’s Emir Tamim hosted Hungarian President and Netanyahu ally Victor Orban in Doha.

“We appreciate his visit and Hungary’s support for the sovereignty of our country following the treacherous Israeli attack that threatens the stability and security of the region and undermines the international efforts aimed at achieving peace and regional stability through dialogue and respect for international law,” Tamim writes in an X post on the meeting.

أرحب برئيس الوزراء فيكتور أوربان، ونقدر زيارته ودعم هنغاريا لسيادة بلادنا إثر الهجوم الإسرائيلي الغادر الذي يهدد استقرار وأمن المنطقة، ويقوض الجهود الدولية الرامية إلى تحقيق السلام والاستقرار الإقليمي والعالمي عبر الحوار واحترام القانون الدولي. pic.twitter.com/5Z7oxcdT0s

— تميم بن حمد (@TamimBinHamad) September 12, 2025

50 reported killed throughout Strip Friday as Israel steps up attacks on Gaza City

Palestinians walk past a destroyed building after an Israeli strike on Al-Nassr Street in Gaza City on September 12, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Israeli military operations killed 50 people in Gaza on Friday, the territory’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says, as the army stepped up its attacks on Gaza City.

The civil defense agency says 35 people were killed in the city on Friday, along with another 15 in other parts of the territory.

The Israeli military says it is continuing “its wide-scale strikes on terrorist infrastructure and high-rise structures” in Gaza City.

This picture shows an Israeli projectile targeting a building on Jalaa Street in Gaza City on September 12, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean international news agencies are unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.

A single strike in the northwest of Gaza City killed 14 people, the civil defense said.

“The majority of them are children and women,” relative Hazem al Sultan tells AFP. “Only two bodies were intact, while the rest were body parts.”

Children sit atop piled up mattresses as Palestinians flee south from Gaza City with their belongings, via the coastal road near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on September 12, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

At the city’s Al-Shifa hospital, mourners pray over the dead wrapped in white shrouds, some of them the size of children.

The military did not respond to a request for comment on the strike.

While the army has issued multiple evacuation warnings for Gaza City, many residents have told AFP they have nowhere else to go, noting Israel has repeatedly struck the area in the south to which it has urged people to move.

A woman pushes the wheelchair of an elderly person as Palestinians flee south from Gaza City via the coastal road near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on September 12, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

Report: Mossad pushed back on carrying out plan it drew up to use agents on the ground to kill Hamas leaders in Doha

The Mossad pushed back on carrying out a plan it had recently drawn up for its agents on the ground to assassinate Hamas leaders in Doha, The Washington Post reports, citing two unnamed Israeli sources familiar with the matter.

Mossad chief David Barnea opposed implementing the plan, fearing it would rupture his agency’s relationship with Qatar, which has been mediating hostage talks between Israel and Hamas.

The Post says that the Mossad’s pushback led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go with an airstrike on Hamas’s compound in Doha, deploying 15 fighter jets that launched 10 missiles from afar — apparently with limited success.

Israel’s security establishment backs the need for eliminating all of Hamas’s leaders, but pushed back on the timing and location of this week’s operation before being overruled by Netanyahu.

“We can get them in one, two, or four years from now, and the Mossad knows how to do it,” one of the Israeli sources told The Post, referencing the possibility of covertly assassinating Hamas leaders anywhere in the world at a later date. “Why do it now?”

Joining Barnea in opposing this week’s strike was IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, while Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Israel Katz backed the operation.

Nitzan Alon, the IDF’s point man for hostage talks, was not invited to the ministerial consult ahead of the strike.

British, French, German foreign ministers condemn Israel’s Qatar strikes

The British, French and German foreign ministers condemn Israel’s September 9 air strikes on Doha, saying that the bombing, which targeted Hamas leadership, violated Qatar’s sovereignty and risked further escalation.

“Such action poses a serious risk to achieving a negotiated deal,” they write in the statement issued three days after the strikes. “We express our solidarity with Qatar and fully support the vital role it continues to play in mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas.”

White House confirms Trump and Witkoff will dine tonight with Qatari PM

Left to right: US President-elect Donald Trump's incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff at a Trump campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, New York, October 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci); Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a government meeting in Nahariya on December 3, 2024. (Maayan Toaf/GPO); Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani attends a meeting in Egypt's new administrative capital on November 27, 2024. (Khaled Desouki/AFP)

US President Donald Trump will meet Qatar’s prime minister on Friday after an Israeli strike on Hamas in the Gulf state, a key US partner, the White House says.

Trump and his special envoy Steve Witkoff “will be having dinner” with Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani, it says in a brief statement.

Lebanon says one dead in Israeli strike on south

Lebanon says that one person was killed Friday in an Israeli strike on the country’s south near the border.

“An Israeli enemy strike on the town of Aitaroun killed one person,” the country’s health ministry says.

Israel has continued to carry out attacks on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah operatives or sites, despite the November truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed group.

A day earlier, the health ministry said one person was killed in a strike in south Lebanon, while five others died Monday in strikes in the country’s east that the Israeli army said targeted Hezbollah positions.

Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the Lebanese government last month ordered the military to draw up a plan to disarm the once-dominant Hezbollah, and last week said the army would begin to put it into action.

Hezbollah, badly weakened by the recent war, has opposed the disarmament push, which Lebanon says is part of implementing the ceasefire deal.

Security chiefs said to warn ministers Gaza City takeover will ‘inevitably’ kill hostages

Thousands attend a protest march in Jerusalem, calling for a deal to end to the war and secure the release of all the hostages from Hamas captivity, September 6, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

The heads of Israeli security agencies warned ministers during a meeting earlier today convened by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the planned Gaza City takeover will “inevitably” lead to the killing of hostages, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

The prediction is more definitive than previous ones given by the security establishment about the Gaza City operation. In the past, the cabinet has warned that the operation could likely place the hostages being held there at risk.

The security chiefs also warned ministers in today’s meeting that while the evacuation of Gaza City has gone relatively well thus far, hundreds of thousands of the one million people who were living in the area are likely to remain, as opposed to last year’s Rafah operation, where the IDF managed to clear out almost everyone ahead of time.

Many Palestinians have been refusing to leave Gaza City, believing that they’d rather be killed in their homes, as opposed to an uncertain evacuation process to heavily crowded tent-cities in the south, where resources will be even more limited as the displaced population balloons. Hamas is also said to be discouraging Palestinians from heeding evacuation orders, as Israel says it is expanding humanitarian services for the displaced population.

The security chiefs told cabinet members the large population expected to remain in Gaza City will become the responsibility of the IDF and troops will have to provide them with aid and other basic services, Kan reports.

Moreover, the security establishment warned that the Gaza City takeover will take much longer than currently anticipated. While Netanyahu says he has ordered the IDF to shrink the timeline for the operation, the security chiefs said it will likely take many months, and even then, it’s unclear whether the goals of the takeover will be met, Kan reports.

Palestinian VP says UN vote ‘important step towards ending occupation’

PLO vice president Hussein al-Sheikh welcomes a UN vote in favor of a Hamas-free Palestinian state, saying it is an “important step towards ending the (Israeli) occupation.”

“I hail the adoption of the resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations… on the implementation of the two-state solution and the creation of an independent Palestinian state,” Sheikh posts on X.

“This resolution expresses international willingness to support our people’s rights and constitutes an important step towards ending the occupation and achieving our independent state on 1967 borders with (Israeli-annexed) East Jerusalem as its capital,” he adds.

10,000 children in Gaza City diagnosed with acute malnutrition in past two months — UNICEF

Palestinians shove to receive a hot meal from a charity kitchen in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, on September 4, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)

The United Nations Children’s Fund reports that over 10,000 children in Gaza City have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition in the past two months alone.

The agency warns that if disconnected from their treatment, there is a high risk that some of the 2,400 children currently being treated for severe acute malnutrition in the area could starve to death.

Meanwhile, 11,000 people evacuated Gaza City southward between 2 p.m. Wednesday and 2 p.m. Thursday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric says during a briefing.

Yesterday, a UN team successfully delivered fuel to a series of critical service providers in Gaza City — a rarity during the war, as Israel limits the entry of fuel due to concerns that it is used by Hamas fighters.

The fuel is used to operate hospitals and other health facilities, and for water treatment, trucking, desalination and waste management.

Israel said checking to see if Hamas leadership was even in building it struck in Doha

As the Israeli security establishment increasingly believes that none of Hamas’s leadership was killed in the Tuesday IDF strike in Doha, it has begun checking whether the terror group’s top brass was even in the building that was targeted, Channel 12 reports.

The other possibility still being examined is that the Hamas leaders were in a different part of the building than the section that was hit directly.

The security establishment believes that one or two Hamas leaders may have been injured — potentially Khalil al-Hayya among them. This could explain Hamas’s decision not to release a photo of him in its statement earlier today announcing that he is still alive.

Another scenario being checked is whether the Hamas leaders managed to get a heads-up at the last minute, which enabled them to escape ahead of time, though that would mean that top officials like Hayya didn’t alert his son Hammam, who was killed in the strike.

Knocking UN resolution urging Hamas’s ouster, Israel notes it doesn’t even call Hamas a terror group

Israel rejects the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voting to endorse a declaration outlining steps towards a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians without Hamas.

“Once again, it has been proven how much the General Assembly is a political circus detached from reality: in the dozens of clauses of the declaration endorsed by this resolution, there is not a single mention that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein says in a post on X.

The resolution does, however, condemn Hamas’s October 7 attack, call on the group to release the hostages and outline steps for its removal from power in Gaza.

Israel utterly rejects the decision of the UN General Assembly this evening.

Once again, it has been proven how much the General Assembly is a political circus detached from reality: in the dozens of clauses of the declaration endorsed by this resolution, there is not a single… pic.twitter.com/UAT2VaAysi

— Oren Marmorstein (@OrenMarmorstein) September 12, 2025

Further boosting Israeli understanding that Doha strike failed, Hamas says Hayya attended funeral for ‘martyred’ son

Hamas senior member Khalil al-Hayya gives a televised speech rejecting Israel's offer of a temporary truce and hostage release deal, on April 17, 2025. (Screen capture/X)

Hamas issues a statement announcing that its Qatar-based Gaza head of the terror group Khalil al-Hayya attended yesterday’s funeral for his “martyred” son Hammam, who was killed along with four other Hamas members and a Qatari security guard in the “treacherous” Tuesday Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha.

The funeral was able to take place thanks to “special security arrangements” in Qatar, the Hamas statement adds.

The statement is an effective negation of initial rumors that the elder Hayya was killed in the Israeli strike, though Hamas doesn’t publish a corroborating photo.

Israel’s security establishment has begun to privately acknowledge that the strike was not successful in eliminating any of Hamas’s top leaders.

Still, none of the top brass has been spotted publicly since the strike, as Hamas and Qatar have tried to maintain an information vacuum since.

Hayya has been heading Hamas’s hostage negotiating team.

Greek neo-Nazi leader granted conditional release

Head of Greece's extreme far-right Golden Dawn party Nikos Michaloliakos arrives to testify, in the Court of Athens, November 6, 2019. (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

The leader of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, has been granted conditional release from prison five years into a 13-and-a-half-year sentence, state news agency ANA says.

A judicial council allowed the 67-year-old mathematician and Holocaust denier to serve his remaining sentence at home on health grounds, the agency said.

It is the second time Michaloliakos has been let out of prison following his conviction in 2020 over Golden Dawn’s long litany of violent attacks on immigrants and political opponents.

He was briefly released in May 2024 before judicial officials determined he had not shown good behavior and should return to prison.

Crimes tied to Golden Dawn included the 2013 murders of an anti-fascist rapper and a Pakistani migrant, as well as the beatings of Egyptian fishermen and Communist trade unionists.

The xenophobic and antisemitic organization created by Michaloliakos was for decades a fringe party, until Greece’s 2010 debt crisis.

The group then capitalized on public anger over immigration and austerity cuts, entering parliament for the first time in 2012.

At the height of its influence, it was the country’s third-biggest party.

It has since almost disappeared from the political scene, after the conviction of its leader and dozens of members, whose appeal trial, which began in 2022, is still underway.

Golden Dawn figures still behind bars include former European Parliament member Yiannis Lagos, who was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and extradited from Belgium in 2021 to serve a sentence of 13 years and eight months.

US general meets Syria’s Sharaa in Damascus, US military says

The top US general overseeing American forces in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at his presidential palace in Damascus on Friday, US Central Command says in a statement.

The two men were joined in their meeting by US envoy to Syria Thomas Barrack, the statement says.

The men discussed efforts to counter Islamic State militants in Syria.

Cooper and Barrack also praised Syria for helping in the recovery of US citizens inside the country, the statement says.

https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/1966504782748639399

Israeli players withdraw from Spanish chess tourney after being told they couldn’t compete under national flag

Seven Israeli chess players registered for a Spanish tournament starting on Friday have all withdrawn from the event, say the organizers, who had told the players they would not be competing under their national flag, citing the conflict in Gaza and expressing solidarity with the Palestinians.

“One after another they kept pulling out and finally the last one, this very morning, decided not to come,” said Miguel Angel Olmo, president of the Sestao Chess Club that organizes the event.

“We have acted in accordance with international regulations, but we invited them not to take part and we thank them for their decision.”

The International Chess Federation (FIDE), which was not available for comment, said last week it had not been consulted on the matter.

“FIDE had no prior knowledge of this decision, did not make any ruling on this, nor was it consulted by the organizers,” it said. “FIDE strongly condemns any form of discrimination, including on the basis of nationality and flag.”

Unlike Russian and Belarusian players, who since 2022 have been obliged to compete without their national colors due to sanctions, Israelis are not subject to such restrictions.

The Sestao event has drawn more than 250 players from 33 countries.

“We respect the International Chess Federation regulations for open tournaments, but we also have convictions: we have worked to find a peaceful solution, informing the players and the public, and we believe we have achieved our goal,” the club said in a statement.

Local associations planned rallies in Sestao in support of the Palestinians, which the club also welcomed.

UN overwhelmingly passes non-binding resolution to establish Palestinian state sans Hamas

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon (bottom-R) speaks during a General Assembly meeting to vote on the two-state solution to the Palestinian question at United Nations headquarters (UN) on September 12, 2025, in New York City. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to endorse a declaration outlining “tangible, time-bound and irreversible steps” toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, without the involvement of Hamas.

One hundred and forty-two countries vote in favor of the non-binding resolution enshrining the New York Declaration, which also calls on Hamas to release all hostages and condemns the terror group’s October 7 onslaught.

Joining Israel and the United States in opposing the resolution were Argentina, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga. Twelve countries abstained.

It also calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the two-state solution.”

Watch the moment the General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to endorse the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.

The world chooses peace.
Palestine chooses peace. pic.twitter.com/U91yVEuCJc

— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) September 12, 2025

The declaration, which was endorsed by the Arab League and co-signed in July by 17 UN member states, including several Arab countries, also goes further than condemning Hamas, seeking to fully excise the terror group from leadership in Gaza.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” the declaration states.

The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on September 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to formally recognize the Palestinian state. Several other countries have made similar pledges. Israel has called the planned recognition of a Palestinian state a “prize for terror.”

UN Security Council condemns Houthi detention of UN personnel in Yemen

The United Nations Security Council condemns the detentions of UN personnel by Houthi militants in Yemen and demands their immediate and unconditional release.

IDF says it struck 500 targets in Gaza City this week in preparation for takeover

The Israeli Air Force struck over 500 targets in Gaza City this week in five main waves, as part of preparations for an upcoming major ground offensive against Hamas in the area, the military says.

The first three waves focused on Gaza City’s Daraj, Tuffah and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods. In recent days, the IDF says it expanded its strikes to the Shati camp and additional areas in Sheikh Radwan.

The strikes have destroyed several high-rise towers that the IDF says were being used by Hamas for surveillance, as sniper posts, to store weapons, and some of which had tunnels running underneath them.

Ahead of the strikes, the IDF issued warnings to Palestinian civilians residing in the area.

French-Saudi confab undermines US national security, says internal State Dept. memo

The US State Department calls the upcoming conference on a Palestinian state hosted by France and Saudi Arabia “a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th and a reward for terrorism,” in an internal cable sent to diplomats on Thursday and seen by The Times of Israel.

The missive, titled “US Policy Guidance Opposing Initiatives Supporting Unilateral Recognition of a Palestinian State,” says the conference is a publicity stunt that will prolong the war in Gaza, embolden Hamas, reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace.”

The “High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution” is slated for September 22 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The conference “undermines US national security interests,” says the State Department. The initiative “directly interferes with efforts to achieve a ceasefire and alleviate the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” according to the cable.

The Palestine Liberation Organization has not consistently condemned terrorism, charges the Donald Trump administration.

“US foreign policy and national security interests support our administration’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and the elimination of Hamas,” says the cable. “This includes securing the immediate unconditional release of hostages taken on October 7, 2023, including the remains of two Americans, and achieving a ceasefire acceptable to Israel.”

A second cable delineates firm limits on contact US government employees may have with Palestinian Authority and PLO officials, saying it should “be strictly limited to interactions that directly advance an identifiable US objective.”

Government personnel “may not attend diplomatic receptions, cultural activities, athletic events, and other local and international activities hosted by PA or PLO officials” without gaining express approval from the State Department.

Senior US government officials, and defense and intelligence officials, are allowed to maintain contacts with PA counterparts.

Tsurkov says she was tortured in captivity, highlights plight of Gaza hostages in call with PM

Former Israeli hostage Elizabeth Tsurkov is greeted by family and friends at Sheba Medical Center on September 10, 2025. (Yuval Yosef/GPO)

In her Thursday call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after her release from captivity in Iraq, Israeli academic Elizabeth Tsurkov quickly makes a point to highlight the plight of the hostages.

In footage of the call posted by Tsurkov’s sister Emma, Netanyahu can be heard beginning the conversation by asking Elizabeth how she’s feeling.

“I went through some difficult things — torture in Iraq. It will take time to deal with it,” she says, thanking the Israeli medical teams and staff of the hostages directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office for their assistance.

Elizabeth's conversation with PM Netanyahu expressing gratitude and calling for the release of all remaining hostages. #BringThemAllHomeNow pic.twitter.com/e93R42fwO3

— Emma Tsurkov #FreeElizabeth (@emma_tsurkov) September 12, 2025

She then quickly turns to the issue of hostages in Gaza.

“Yesterday, Gali and Ziv Berman had a birthday. And I tell you from personal experience that birthdays are the hardest days in captivity, and I wish for all the hostages in Gaza a speedy return to their families,” she says.

Netanyahu says he is working on that issue and hopes that all of the hostages will soon be returned.

Tsurkov then raises the importance of combating the presence of Iranian proxies in Iraq, noting that she is one of thousands who have been negatively impacted by groups like Kataeb Hezbollah, who kidnapped her in 2023.

BBC censures staff for calling Hamas a ‘terror group’

The BBC has censured staff members for calling Hamas a “terror group” on a broadcast on June 15.

The British public broadcaster’s executive complaints unit (ECU) said on Thursday that a presenter who used the phrase on television strayed from its editorial guidelines.

The ECU says the BBC does not call organizations “terror” or “terrorist” groups in order to maintain “due accuracy and impartiality.” It will, however, say that they are designated as such by third parties.

The June 15 incident was reported to BBC’s management and discussed with its editorial team, BBC says.

Israel has called on the BBC to change its policy and refer to Hamas as a terror organization.

Netanyahu rejects ‘insane’ conspiracy theories that Israel was behind Charlie Kirk’s assassination

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses internet conspiracy theories that Israel was behind the deadly shooting of pro-Israel conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, telling the Newsmax outlet that the accusation is “insane.”

“That’s insane,” he tells host Greta Van Susteren, adding sarcastically, “Israel also changes the orbit of the moon, Israel pushes the sun.”

Netanyahu calls Kirk “a great human being, a great champion of free speech, free debate, freedom.”

“And we grieve for him, for his wife, Erika, for his two beautiful children.”

Netanyahu says he spoke to him by phone “a few weeks ago,” and Kirk told him he was setting up a trip to Israel. He reads from a letter Kirk wrote in May, which reads, “One of my greatest joys as a Christian is advocating for Israel and forming alliances to defend Judeo-Christian civilization.”

Netanyahu decries those “trying to basically snuff out democracy, snuff out free speech, kill those who speak like Charlie.”

“And these people are the exact opposite,” he continues. “They speak of human rights, but they trample all human rights to the dust. And the first right that we have is the right to live. They want to kill us. They try. And I think that could have a very, very negative effect unless Americans like Israelis stand up to this and say, No way, no way, we’re not going to surrender to this barbarism and to this murderous attempt to wipe out our civilization and our freedom.”

Israeli professor’s online lecture to NY college disrupted with shouts of ‘kill all the Jews’

An Israeli law professor’s online lecture to a New York City college this week was disrupted by shouted slurs such as, “Kill all the Jews,” and, “Go back to Auschwitz,” The New York Times reports.

The event was held over Zoom and hosted by Queens College, part of the New York City public university system. It was open to the public, the report says.

The professor, Yofi Tirosh, was delivering a lecture on the rights of women and sexual minorities in Israel.

“There’s nothing for Palestinians in this protest,” she tells The Times. “It doesn’t do anything for the cause of ending the war.”

The college condemns the incident and is investigating.

Queens College is home to large student populations of Jews and Muslims. There were flare-ups over the conflict earlier in the Gaza war, but the campus has generally been calm and its administration has been praised by Jewish groups, including the ADL.

There is widespread anti-Israel activism on New York campuses that Jews say spills into antisemitism, but outright Jew-hatred is relatively rare.

Kirk murder suspect in custody identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson

The suspect in custody in connection with Charlie Kirk’s killing is a 22-year-old from Utah, a law enforcement official tell The Associated Press.

Authorities have identified the suspect as Tyler Robinson, says the official, who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Tyler Robinson 22 of Utah is in custody for murder of Charlie Kirk pic.twitter.com/OBbKFOfHQs

— John Schatz (@Eddyvnhln5150) September 12, 2025

Spain summons Israeli envoy over comments by Netanyahu’s office

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares summons the Israeli chargé d’affaires in Madrid over recent comments about Spain made by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Albares summoned Dana Erlich — currently Israel’s top diplomat in Madrid — to “categorically reject the false and slanderous statements from the Israeli prime minister’s office,” Spain’s foreign ministry says in a statement.

In an X post on Thursday, Netanyahu’s office had accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of making “genocidal threats,” in reference to Sanchez’s announcement on Monday of new measures against Israel-bound arms and fuel deliveries.

Sanchez had justified the measures by saying Spain lacked nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers or large oil reserves to exert pressure on Israel to stop what he qualified as “genocide.”

Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and it is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that accuses it of genocide.

The US State Department also expressed concern over Madrid’s limitations on ships and aircraft delivering weapons or military-grade jet fuel to Israel, as well as entry bans on the Israeli national security and finance ministers.

IDF releases footage of Houthi drone interception

The military releases footage showing the interception of a Houthi drone this week by an Israeli Air Force helicopter.

According to the IDF, at least 10 drones launched from Yemen at Israel this week were intercepted. One Houthi drone struck Ramon Airport in southern Israel.

״רשאי, אלפא, מטרה בוצעה״: חיל האוויר יירט בשבוע האחרון עשרה כלי טיס בלתי מאויישים ששוגרו מתימן

בשבוע האחרון, חיל האוויר יירט עשרה כלי טיס בלתי מאויישים ששוגרו מתימן.

במסגרת שיתוף הפעולה בין מערכי חיל האוויר, נסגרו מעגלים על כלי טיס בלתי מאוישים ששוגרו מתימן ויורטו בהצלחה.… pic.twitter.com/XMcQm4Be0L

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 12, 2025

Rubio will discuss goals of ‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots II’ during Israel trip

The US State Department confirms Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s travel to Israel over a week after Hebrew media reported that he’d be in town next week to attend a ceremony in East Jerusalem’s City of David.

The State Department says Rubio will depart on Saturday for Israel, where “he will convey America’s priorities in the Israel-Hamas conflict and broader issues concerning Middle Eastern security, reaffirming US commitment to Israeli security.”

“He will also emphasize our shared goals: ensuring Hamas never rules over Gaza again and bringing all the hostages home.”

“The secretary and Israeli leaders will discuss Israeli operational goals and objectives related to Operation Gideon’s Chariots II, and our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions, including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism, and lawfare at the ICC and ICJ,” the State Department says.

Gideon’s Chariots II is the Israeli military’s operational name for the takeover of Gaza City. It follows Gideon’s Chariots I, which was launched in May with the goal of occupying 75 percent of the Strip to coax Hamas into releasing hostages — an objective that was not met.

“The secretary will also meet with the families of hostages and underscore that their relatives’ return remains a top priority,” the US readout says, adding that Rubio will then travel to the UK for US President Donald Trump’s visit to the country.

Trump: A couple of hostages could have been killed in recent days

US President Donald Trump talks to reporters on the South Lawn as he departs the White House, on September 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

US President Donald Trump tells Fox News “there could be a couple of dead in recent days” from the 20 hostages thought to still be alive in Gaza.

Over the past several months, Trump has repeatedly made public comments suggesting that fewer hostages than the official Israeli number are alive, leading to panic among hostage families who have not been updated on such developments.

For several weeks, Israel has insisted that the number of hostages it believes are alive remains at 20, though officials have acknowledged that there are grave concerns regarding one or two of them.

Hamas and other terror groups are also holding the bodies of 38 other hostages, though Trump incorrectly tells Fox News that the number is 34.

“I told Hamas, we want our hostages back. We have all the Americans back, but now I’m talking about hostages, mostly Israeli,” Trump says during an interview on Fox & Friends. Two of the bodies still held by Hamas are of American citizens Omer Neutra and Itay Chen.

Trump goes on to assert that the US will solve the situation in Gaza.

Hamas praises Jerusalem area stabbing attack, but doesn’t take responsibility for it

Hamas praises a stabbing attack that injured two Israeli civilians earlier today at a hotel outside Jerusalem.

In a statement, the terror group calls the attack at Kibbutz Tzuba a “heroic stabbing attack” which deals a “new blow to the occupation’s security apparatus.”

Hamas does not take responsibility for the stabbing.

The suspected assailant, an employee at the hotel who lives in East Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood, took a knife to two male guests, moderately injuring a 23-year-old and seriously injuring a 50-year-old. Both were taken to the hospital.

He was overpowered and restrained by an off-duty cop who had been staying at the hotel, police said earlier today.

2-year-old girl in critical condition after being left in a car in Dimona

A two-year-old girl is in critical condition after she was forgotten in a car in Dimona, paramedics announce.

Medics found the toddler unconscious in the locked car and are providing her first aid on the spot, says the Magen David Adom emergency service.

Trump says suspect in Charlie Kirk killing taken into custody

US President Donald Trump says law enforcement has taken a suspect into custody in the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah university on Wednesday.

“I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump tells Fox News in an interview, adding that a person who knows the suspect had turned him in.

FOX NEWS ALERT: @POTUS says “with a high degree of certainty” that authorities have Charlie Kirk’s assassin in custody. pic.twitter.com/pXAwik0a0Z

— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) September 12, 2025

Netherlands won’t join Eurovision next year if Israel participates, says broadcaster

Israel's Yuval Raphael performs 'New Day Will Rise' during the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, at the St. Jakobshalle arena in Basel, Switzerland, on May 17, 2025. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The Netherlands has joined Ireland in saying it will not take part in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates in the event due to the scale of the suffering in Gaza, Dutch broadcaster AvroTros says.

Yesterday, Irish broadcaster RTE said Israel’s participation was “unconscionable” given the “ongoing and appalling loss of lives in Gaza.”

Recent editions of Eurovision have seen protests at Israel’s inclusion over the ongoing war in Gaza, which followed the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

AvroTros said it had also taken into account the high number of journalists who have died in Gaza in deciding to boycott the 2026 contest, which was watched by 166 million people on television this year, if Israel attends. Israel has denied targeting journalists in the enclave and says some of those killed were affiliated with Hamas.

Israel came in fifth in the contest in 2024, and was the runner-up in the most recent edition earlier this year.

Trump to meet Qatari prime minister after Israeli attack in Doha

Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends the 163rd GCC Ministerial Council meeting with Egypt in Mecca on March 6, 2025. (Amer HILABI / AFP)

US President Donald Trump plans to meet the Qatari prime minister in New York today, a White House official says, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha, another American ally.

The official does not elaborate on the timing of the meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani or its agenda.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with a strike in Qatar on Tuesday, an attack that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict between Israel and the terror group.

The attack was widely condemned by countries in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.

Trump has criticized the strike on Qatar, a US ally, and promised that it would not happen again, while also saying that killing Hamas leaders is a “worthy goal.” The terror group has claimed its leaders were not killed in the strike.

Politico reported earlier today that Trump’s staff has grown increasingly frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, following the Doha strike, is concerned that he wants to undermine negotiations toward a ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages the terror group holds there, and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.

Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace, but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.

The Qatari leader will also meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department said late on Thursday.

Suspect in stabbing at Kibbutz Tzuba was reportedly hotel employee who used knife from kitchen

Emergency vehicles arrive at the scene of a stabbing attack at Kibbutz Tuzba, west of Jerusalem, on September 12, 2025. (Magen David Adom)

The suspected terrorist who carried out a stabbing attack at a hotel in Kibbutz Tzuba was an employee at the establishment, Hebrew media reports.

The assailant is reportedly a 42-year-old man from Shuafat in East Jerusalem, and has a history of security offenses.

Channel 12 reports, citing eyewitnesses, that the assailant took a knife from the hotel kitchen and shouted “Allahu akbar” before perpetrating the attack in the hotel dining room.

He stabbed a 50-year-old man, seriously injuring him, and a 23-year-old man, moderately injuring him.

He was subdued and arrested by an off-duty police investigator staying at the hotel, according to law enforcement.

The officer who arrested the attacker had been at a family event at the hotel, where he noticed a mass of people hurriedly leaving the building earlier.

After heading in the direction from which the civilians fled, he spotted the terrorist and confronted him, with the help of the dining room’s manager.

“I overpowered the terrorist with my hands rather than gunfire to reduce the danger to the civilians at the scene,” the officer says. “With the help of other brave civilians, I laid him on the floor and handcuffed him.”

One of the injured stabbing victims was the officer’s cousin, according to a police statement.

Magen David Adom paramedics arrived at the scene of the stabbing to find the wounded 23-year-old sitting in the hotel’s parking lot. He was taken to the hospital in moderate condition.

Paramedics later found the 50-year-old in the hotel dining room, suffering from a stab wound to the chest. He was also transported to the hospital.

Jerusalem District police commander Amir Arzani is currently conducting a situational assessment at the scene of the attack.

Three other suspects were also arrested in connection with the attack.

Breast cancer patients and survivors sail in Herzliya flotilla to raise awareness

Breast cancer survivors and patients participate in a flotilla in Herzliya to raise awareness of breast cancer. (Or Gefen/Israel Cancer Association)

A pink flotilla takes off today from the Herzliya Marina and sails around it for a few hours to raise awareness for International Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.

Participants include breast cancer patients and survivors, says Moshe Bar-Haim, CEO of the Israel Cancer Association, who organized the flotilla with the Herzliya Municipality and the Herzliya Municipal Tourism Development Company.

Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease among women in Israel. According to the Israel Cancer Association, this year approximately 5,730 women are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in Israel.

“Participating in the flotilla is a small victory on the long road to recovery,” says Dana Oren Yanai, Deputy Mayor of Herzliya and Chairwoman of the Herzliya Municipal Tourism Development Company.

Two injured, one seriously, in suspected terror stabbing at hotel west of Jerusalem

Israeli security forces at the scene of a stabbing attack at Kibbutz Tzuba on September 12, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

First responders say two people have been injured in a suspected terror attack at the hotel at Kibbutz Tzuba, west of Jerusalem.

The two people who were wounded have arrived at Hadassah Ein Kerem — a 50-year-old in serious condition and a 23-year-old in moderate condition, Hadassah Medical Center says. Both are suffering from stab wounds and are conscious.

Police say that a police officer staying at the hotel was on the scene and took the suspected terrorist into custody. Border Police are present in the area.

The suspect is from Shuafat in East Jerusalem, according to the police.

ראשוני: אירוע דקירה במלון בקיבוץ צובה, הדוקר נעצר@HGoldich pic.twitter.com/4PkBw6PemJ

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 12, 2025

UAE reportedly summons Israeli ambassador over Doha strike

Yossi Shelley, then-director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, at a Finance Committee meeting at the Knesset on June 5, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The United Arab Emirates summons Israeli Ambassador Yossi Shelley over Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, Israeli media report, in another sign of strain between the two countries with close economic and defense ties.

Even before Tuesday’s strike on the Qatari capital Doha, relations between Abu Dhabi and Israel’s government had been uneasy over a potential Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which the UAE earlier told The Times of Israel would constitute a ‘red line’.

Israel’s attempt to kill Hamas political leaders prompted international condemnation, including from the UAE. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Qatar to expel Hamas officials or to “bring them to justice, because if you don’t, we will.”

The UAE, which normalized ties with Israel under the 2020 Abraham Accords, condemned Netanyahu’s remarks as “hostile,” as its President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan toured Gulf Arab countries, aiming to coordinate positions on the Israeli attack.

There was no immediate comment from the UAE or Israeli foreign ministries on the report.

The Doha attack on the terror group’s leadership, which has long been based there, was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire and hostage-release deal in the Gaza war.

The UAE is also reportedly considering a Qatari request to close its embassy in Tel Aviv in response to the Doha strike. And it is already eager to rid Abu Dhabi of Shelley over his reported misconduct, including breaches of protocol and security regulations.

Doha will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Sunday and Monday to discuss the Israeli attack.

IDF says it’s expanding crossing into Gaza to up aid supply ahead of Gaza City offensive

Construction work is carried out at the so-called Crossing 147, or Kissufim Crossing, with the Gaza Strip, in an image published on September 12, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israeli military says it is working to expand Crossing 147, also known as the Kissufim Crossing, with Gaza to facilitate an increased supply of humanitarian aid. The work is part of efforts to evacuate civilians from Gaza City to the Strip’s south.

“In recent days, IDF troops have worked to prepare and adapt the area, including paving new routes and expanding the goods terminal,” the military says.

Once the construction work is complete, the military says the crossing’s “truck intake capacity will rise to 150 trucks per day, three times the current level, thereby enabling increased entry of aid, with an emphasis on food, into the humanitarian area.”

This week, the IDF has called on Palestinian civilians in all of Gaza City to head for the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south, ahead of a major offensive in the city against Hamas.

Out of the one million Palestinians who were in Gaza City, some 250,000 have evacuated, according to fresh IDF estimates.

3 injured in recent Jerusalem terror attack improving, 3 others released — hospital

Two women who were seriously wounded in Wednesday’s terror attack at Jerusalem’s Ramot Junction continue to be treated in intensive care but show improvement, Shaare Zedek Medical Center says.

One moderately wounded man is still hospitalized, with an improvement in his condition.

Three other moderately wounded people were released from the hospital in good condition.

Israel says nearly 280 trucks of aid entered Gaza yesterday

Illustration: Empty UNRWA and World Food Program trucks head to the Kerem Shalom crossing to collect humanitarian aid and fuel in the Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Nearly 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip yesterday through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) says.

According to COGAT, over 350 trucks’ worth of aid were also collected by the United Nations and other international organizations from the Gaza side of the crossings yesterday to be distributed.

“The contents of hundreds of trucks are still awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the crossings,” COGAT says.

Similar amounts of aid deliveries have been reported daily over the past few weeks.

The UN has said 600 trucks of aid need to be distributed each day in order to properly feed the Strip’s roughly two million people amid the war.

COGAT also says that “tankers of UN fuel entered for the operation of essential humanitarian systems” yesterday, and that it coordinated the entry and exit of humanitarian aid workers rotating in and out of Gaza.

Turkey arrests 161 Islamic State group suspects in a week

Turkish police have arrested 161 suspected members of the Islamic State terror group over the last week, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya says.

The suspects were active within the group and provided it with financial support, he added in a post on X. They were detained in 38 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, including the capital, Ankara, and largest city, Istanbul.

Yerlikaya says unlicensed firearms, IS documents and digital materials were seized in the raids.

The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has carried out numerous attacks on Turkey over the past decade, including a double bombing at a political rally in 2015 that killed more than 100 in the country’s deadliest terror attack.

Belgian PM: Festival’s decision to disinvite Israeli conductor is ‘reckless and irresponsible’

Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever arrives for an EU summit at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, February 3, 2025. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever slams as “reckless and irresponsible” a decision by a music festival in Flanders to disinvite a German orchestra over concerns about its Israeli conductor, noting that the move has been called antisemitic.

The Israel Philharmonic and Germany, as well as Belgium’s foreign minister, have already criticized the cancellation of the planned performance at the Flanders Festival Ghent by the Munich Philharmonic, led by its future chief conductor, Israeli Lahav Shani.

Organizers said Wednesday they had decided to scrap the performance because Shani had not “unequivocally” distanced himself from Israel’s government, whose ongoing war in Gaza has triggered international uproar.

De Wever says the festival’s decision “has rightfully provoked great consternation and has been characterized as antisemitic.”

“To impose a professional ban on someone solely because of their origin is both reckless and irresponsible,” De Wever writes on X.

“I deeply regret the festival’s decision, which has inflicted severe damage on the reputation of our country.”

Shani, who officially takes over as conductor of the Munich orchestra for the 2026-27 season, is currently music director of the Israel Philharmonic.

IDF: Suspects recently arrested in Syria terror cells were working for Iran’s IRGC

Illustrative: Israeli soldiers seen in the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, August 12, 2025. (Ayal Margolin/ Flash90)

Several suspects detained by Israeli troops in southern Syria in recent months were in terror cells and operating on behalf of Iran’s Unit 840, a clandestine unit within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Quds Force, the IDF says.

The members of the terror cells who were nabbed in the series of recent raids had been directed by Unit 840 to carry out attacks against Israel, according to the IDF.

The IDF details that in March and April, two Unit 840 field operatives, identified as Zeidan al-Tawil and Muhammad al-Kuryan, were arrested in Syria.

In recent weeks, several more terror cells, whose members had been activated by Salah al-Husseini and Muhammad Shuayb — IRGC operatives who were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon in July — were also arrested, the military says.

The IDF says the two slain IRGC operatives in Lebanon were among “the most prominent operatives” involved in smuggling weapons from Iran to the West Bank, as well as to Lebanon and Syria.

The interrogations of the Syrian suspects revealed that not all of them knew who they were working for, the IDF says, “and that their recruitment to work with Unit 840 was in many cases done without revealing the unit’s true motives, but rather through financial bribery.”

IDF detains dozens following attack yesterday on army vehicle in West Bank

Israeli soldiers detain Palestinians during a raid following an attack on an Israeli military vehicle near the Nitzanei Oz Crossing west of Tulkarem in the West Bank on September 11, 2025. (Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

Following an explosive device attack against an army vehicle near the Palestinian West Bank city of Tulkarem yesterday, the IDF detained dozens of men in the city.

The attack, claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, took place near the Nitzanei Oz Crossing at the West Bank border. Two soldiers inside a Panther armored personnel carrier that was targeted were lightly injured.

The IDF confirms that troops detained and questioned numerous suspects in Tulkarem yesterday following the attack, but declines to say how many are currently in custody.

UN General Assembly to vote today on a Hamas-free Palestinian state

The United Nations headquarters stands in Manhattan on September 9, 2025, in New York City. (SPENCER PLATT / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

The UN General Assembly will vote today on whether to back the “New York Declaration,” a resolution that seeks to breathe new life into the two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians — without the involvement of Hamas.

Israel’s government staunchly opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, as well as steps to recognize one at the UN. It has criticized UN bodies for nearly two years over their perceived disproportionate focus on criticizing Israel, as well as their failure to condemn the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that began the ongoing war in Gaza.

The declaration, presented by France and Saudi Arabia, leaves no ambiguity on that condemnation.

Formally called the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, the text states “Hamas must free all hostages” and that the UN General Assembly condemns “the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7th of October.”

It also calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution.”

The declaration, which was already endorsed by the Arab League and co-signed in July by 17 UN member states, including several Arab countries, also goes further than condemning Hamas, seeking to fully excise the terror group from leadership in Gaza.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international engagement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State,” the declaration states.

The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on September 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to formally recognize the Palestinian state. Several other countries have made similar pledges. Israel has called the planned recognition of a Palestinian state a “prize for terror.”

Islamophobic incidents in Australia ‘skyrocketed’ since Israel-Hamas war began, envoy says

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a press conference at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 15, 2025. (Dita Alangkara/AP)

MELBOURNE, Australia — Anti-Muslim incidents have “skyrocketed” across Australia since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly two years ago, the country’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia says.

The envoy, Aftab Malik, handed his first report to the government today.

The report’s 54 recommendations include a review of counterterrorism laws and procedures to investigate potential discrimination.

Malik also recommends a wide-ranging inquiry into Islamophobia to investigate its main drivers and potential discrimination in government policies.

“The reality is that Islamophobia in Australia has been persistent, at times ignored and other times denied, but never fully addressed,” Malik tells reporters.

The government has acknowledged steep rises in both Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents in Australia since the Israel-Hamas war began with the terror group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Jillian Segal was appointed envoy to combat antisemitism in July 2024 and Malik began his three-year role in October.

Segal recommended, in her first report two months ago, that Australian universities lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students, and that potential immigrants be screened for political affiliations.

Islamophobia had intensified since the al-Qaeda attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and had become entrenched, Malik says.

Islamophobic incidents in person had increased by 150% — and by 250% online — since the October 7 attack, Malik says, adding that they “have skyrocketed.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government would “carefully consider” Malik’s recommendations.

“The targeting of Australians based on their religious beliefs is not only an attack on them, but it’s an attack on our core values,” Albanese says.

“We must stamp out the hate, fear and prejudice that drives Islamophobia and division in our society,” he adds.

According to the 2021 Australian Census, 3.2% of the Australian population is Muslim. A much smaller share, roughly 0.5%. is estimated to be Jewish, according to a 2021 census.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. 

Report: Israel conducts two strikes in southern Lebanon

Lebanese media outlets report that an Israeli drone strike hit a car in the southern town of Aita al-Jabal this morning.

It is unclear if there were any casualties from the strike.

Additionally, Israeli forces reportedly demolished a home in the southern Lebanon town of Mays al-Jabal at dawn. Lebanese media publish footage of the home after the Israeli troops apparently left.

The IDF has not commented on either incident.

بالفيديو: دمار في المنزل الذي فجره الجيش الاسرائيلي فجراً في ميس الجبل pic.twitter.com/q3cOXYwqa6

— Lebanon Debate (@lebanondebate) September 12, 2025

Dozens of Israeli actors reportedly fall for suspected Iranian phishing attack

An Israeli passport on January 18, 2023. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Dozens of Israeli actors have fallen for a phishing attack allegedly directed by Iran, Hebrew media report.

A statement from Israel’s National Cyber Directorate reportedly says a roster of Israeli actors received an email that claimed to be about casting for a new movie by a major director. The email requested audition videos, in addition to personal documents such as the actors’ ID cards, passports and addresses.

Dozens of the actors sent the materials in response, Hebrew outlets say, and received threatening responses that attributed the scam to Iran. The Islamic Republic has long attempted, in a range of ways, to recruit spies in Israel or gain access to sensitive Israeli material.

The National Cyber Directorate reportedly recommends that the actors in question replace their identification documents and report to the government that they fell for the scam.

Trump’s push for peace prize won’t sway us, says Nobel committee

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) hands over a letter to US President Donald Trump as they meets at the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 7, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

US President Donald Trump’s obsession with winning the Nobel Peace Prize next month may have hit a hitch — the stubborn independence of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which insists to AFP that it cannot be swayed.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has made it clear he wants the prestigious accolade, which his Democratic predecessor, former president Barack Obama, won to the surprise of many shortly after taking office in 2009.

The 79-year-old has taken every opportunity to say he “deserves it,” claiming to have ended six wars, even though those in Ukraine and between Israel and Hamas in Gaza — which he says he wants to resolve — continue to rage.

“Of course, we do notice that there is a lot of media attention towards particular candidates,” the secretary of the committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, tells AFP in an interview in Oslo.

“But that really has no impact on the discussions that are going on in the committee,” he says. “The committee considers each individual nominee on his or her own merits.”

This year’s laureate will be announced on October 10.

Trump has backed up his claim that he deserves the prize by pointing out that several foreign leaders, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, have either nominated him or backed his nomination.

However, they would have to have been extremely quick, or prescient, given that nominations for this year’s prize had to be submitted by January 31, just 11 days after Trump took office.

In July, Netanyahu told Trump he had nominated the president for the prize, giving him the letter he had sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

“To be nominated is not necessarily a great achievement. The great achievement is to become a laureate,” Berg Harpviken says. “You know, the list of individuals who can nominate is quite long.”

Report: White House ‘frustrated’ with Netanyahu, fears he wants to tank negotiations

Illustrative: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answers a question, as US President Donald Trump looks on, during a dinner in the Blue Room of the White House on July 7, 2025. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images via AFP)

US President Donald Trump’s staff has reportedly grown increasingly frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, following Israel’s targeting of Hamas leadership in Qatar, is concerned that he wants to undermine negotiations toward a ceasefire and hostage-release deal.

The report in Politico quotes an unnamed source it describes as “close to the president’s national security team,” who says the Tuesday bombing against Hamas’s top brass in Doha may have been an intentional move to hinder the talks.

“Every time they’re making progress, it seems like he bombs someone,” the source says, according to Politico. “That’s why the president and his aides are so frustrated with Netanyahu.”

The source also told Politico that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has spoken with Qatari leaders about increasing defense cooperation between their two countries.

Trump has criticized the strike on Qatar, a US ally, and promised that it would not happen again, while also saying that killing Hamas leaders is a “worthy goal.” Hamas has claimed its leaders were not killed in the strike.

“That was the most publicly critical I’ve seen a Republican president be of an Israeli leader in quite some time,” the source told Politico, regarding Trump’s social media post following the attack.

FBI releases video of Charlie Kirk’s shooter as manhunt continues

The FBI releases a video of the person who killed Charlie Kirk fleeing following the shooting.

The suspect in the assassination of the American conservative activist at a Utah university on Wednesday has yet to be found.

The video shows a person running diagonally across a low-rise building, climbing down the side, picking up a bag and running away. A Fox News reporter posts on X that police later found the suspect’s rifle in the area of the building.

Kirk, a leading pro-Donald Trump voice in the United States, was mourned by Israeli leaders as a staunch advocate for Israel. Leaders across the political spectrum have condemned his murder.

BREAKING: The FBI has released new video showing Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin running along the roof at Utah Valley University and jumping down to the ground, where he then walks towards a wooded area where police later found the bolt-action rifle he used. pic.twitter.com/TiRpLwZ4wN

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 12, 2025

Josh Kraft, son of billionaire Robert Kraft, drops out of Boston mayor’s race

Former Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft campaigns outside a polling place on Sept. 9, 2025, in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. (AP/Charles Krupa)

Josh Kraft, son of the billionaire New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, announces that he is dropping his bid to unseat Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, days after advancing to the November ballot.

Kraft announces the move on WCVB-TV Thursday night in Boston. On Tuesday, he and Wu bested two challengers during a preliminary election to advance to the final round of the mayoral race.

Kraft, who is Jewish, is a nonprofit leader. His father is a leading Jewish philanthropist and the founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.

Despite spending millions of his own money on the race, Kraft struggled to find a message that would resonate with voters amid the popularity of Wu. She is Boston’s first female and Asian mayor and has been bolstered in part by her defense of the city against the Trump administration.

Kraft tells supporters in a letter provided to The Associated Press that the election had never been about him or Wu.

“We could spend the next eight weeks politicking—with harmful rhetoric or nasty attack ads. Or we could get back to what really matters – the issues that impact Bostonians each and every day. The work I have focused on for my whole career,” Kraft writes.

Kraft says he plans to support efforts to provide workforce training for former inmates as well as address concerns about homelessness and drug addiction in a section of the city known as Mass and Cass. He says the investment would total $3 million, a combination of funds he planned to dedicate to his campaign and additional dollars.

As of the end of August, Kraft had outspent Wu, $5.5 million to about $1.1 million, thanks in large part to more than $5 million in loans from the candidate to his campaign.

Wu won around 72% of the vote in Tuesday’s election, compared with Kraft’s 23%.

Man shot dead in central city of Kafr Qasim

A man in the central Arab city of Kafr Qasim was shot dead overnight in a suspected murder.

The victim is named in media reports as Yahya Abu Jabar, a resident of Kafr Qasim in his 30s.

Columbia protest leader Khalil tells far-left Jewish group that anti-Zionist Jews ‘give us hope’

Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil takes part in the 'Stand with Gaza' protest at Bryant Park in New York on August 16, 2025. (Leonardo Munoz / AFP)

Mahmoud Khalil, an anti-Israel protest leader at Columbia University made famous after his arrest by the Trump administration, tells a far-left Jewish group that anti-Zionist Jews “give us hope” and that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are separate.

Khalil speaks to IfNotNow, a far-left Jewish activist group based in New York City, during a virtual membership drive for the group.

He highlights the “importance of such anti-Zionist Jewish spaces,” saying that “Palestinian and Jewish liberation are intertwined.”

“We both deserve self-determination, both deserve living in safety and peace,” he says. “My vision for Palestine, whether it’s a 10-state solution, 100-state solution, doesn’t matter as long as we want people to actually live in freedom.”

Anti-Zionism is the rejection of Jewish self-determination in Israel.

He also blames the Trump administration for antisemitism.

“This administration in specific, but also I would say the Zionist lobby at large are trying to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism and this is what really fuels antisemitism,” he says.

“Seeing people who are anti-Zionist Jews is what actually gives us hope, is what goes against the narrative that it’s a religious war,” he says.

Khalil was a leading figure in Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups at Columbia that led anti-Israel protests on the campus.

The group has voiced support for violence, distributed Hamas material at a university library, and caused repeated disruptions on campus following the war. In a newsletter this week, the group applauded Hamas and defended Tarek Bazrouk, an activist who pleaded guilty to assaulting Jews in New York City, and Elias Rodriguez, who killed two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC.

A university antisemitism task force has reported widespread discrimination on the campus targeting Jews and Israelis.

Last week, at a pro-Palestinian conference in Detroit, Khalil took a more combative tone in a call to dismantle Israel.

“Zionism only depends [on] portraying Israel as a normal state, it’s an ordinary state, but our work is to strip that facade until Israel stands exposed as a pariah state, until the Zionist genocidal project and the ideology of supremacy that it’s built on collapse completely,” he said.

Trump: ‘Hopefully’ Israel’s Doha strike didn’t impact efforts to free the hostages

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before boarding Marine One prior to departing the White House in Washington, September 11, 2025. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

US President Donald Trump says “hopefully” Israel’s strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar won’t impact efforts to secure the release of the hostages.

An Arab diplomat involved in mediation efforts told The Times of Israel earlier Thursday that all mediation efforts have halted since the strike.

“We want the hostages out, and we want them out soon. Hopefully [the strike won’t affect them],” Trump tells reporters outside the White House.

At UN, Israel vows ‘no sanctuary for terrorists’ after Security Council slams Doha strike

Defending the Doha strike targeting Hamas chiefs, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon says the attack “sends a message that should echo across this chamber.”

“There is no sanctuary for terrorists, not in Gaza, not in Tehran, not in Doha. There is no immunity for terrorists,” Danon tells the Security Council. “We will act against the leaders of terror wherever they are hiding.”

His comments come after the Security Council issued a rare joint statement condemning the strike in Doha, though it didn’t mention Israel by name.

Israel-Premier Tech to abbreviate name at Canadian cycling races after disruptions in Spain

Team Israel-Premier Tech's riders compete during the fifth stage of La Vuelta a Espana cycling tour, a 24.1 kilometer time-trial team race in Figueres, on August 27, 2025. (Josep Lago/AFP)

Cycling team Israel-Premier Tech will abbreviate their name to IPT for races in Canada this week in attempt to avoid incidents caused by protestors, organizers say.

The general manager of Friday’s Quebec GP and Sunday’s event in Montreal, Joseph Limare, says the full name will not appear on riders’ jersey.

“They asked us to get rid of the word ‘Israel’ from what we could,” Limare says.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have forced the routes of numerous stages of the ongoing Vuelta a Espana to be shortened or changed.

Canadian media reports that protests are expected at the upcoming races.

At UN Security Council, Qatar accuses Israel of trying to derail Gaza truce efforts

UNITED NATIONS — Qatar accuses Israel at the United Nations of trying to derail efforts to end the war in Gaza by attacking Hamas leaders in Doha, but pledges to continue its mediation.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani tells the 15-member body that Israeli leaders had shown no regard for the lives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.